CSUN Softball Player Hurt in Crash Leaves Intensive Care

Cal State Northridge softball player Shelby Wilcox, who suffered a skull fracture in a car accident Friday night in Morro Bay, has been moved from the intensive care unit and could be released from the hospital as early as Wednesday.

Wilcox, 20, was a passenger in teammate Traci Gallian’s car when it was hit almost head-on by an apparently drunk driver in a pickup truck. That driver died Friday night of internal injuries.

Gallian, 19, suffered a broken collarbone and was released from the hospital Saturday.

“Everyone has told me I’m lucky to be alive,” Wilcox said Monday from the Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo.

After the accident, Wilcox did not regain consciousness for nearly a day, and on Monday still could not remember anything from the afternoon of the crash.

But doctors told her to expect a full recovery from the injuries, which also include a shattered right thigh bone and a broken hand. The skull fracture did not injure her brain. A metal rod was inserted into her leg.

“I have mixed emotions as to why the crash had to happen,” Wilcox said. “I feel like I’ve been gypped of the next six months of my life. My goals with softball and school (can’t happen).”

Wilcox, a junior outfielder, batted .323 in 31 at-bats last season to help the Matadors advance to the NCAA championship game.

She will probably miss most or all of the upcoming season, which lasts from February to May.

Police said Monday that they would have filed felony drunk driving charges against the driver of the truck, Roberto Elizarraraz, had he survived.

Elizarraraz, 58, of Los Osos had no driver’s license or automobile insurance, Detective Dan Hubbell of the Morro Bay Police Department said Monday.

The collision occurred on California 1 when Elizarraraz was driving south in the northbound lane, authorities said. He was traveling about 50 m.p.h. when he hit Gallian’s car.

Gallian and Wilcox were en route to teammate Kathy Blake’s wedding in Atascadero, a coastal town about 20 miles north of San Luis Obispo. Hubbell said their lives were probably saved because they wore seat belts.